Holden Associates – Accountants & Business Advisers Blog

BT have what I can only assume is one of the best kept secrets out there. Online BT Business Builder is aimed at small and medium sized businesses, and at first I thought ‘what a great idea, a big company like BT taking the initiative to help small business’.

Upon further inspection it became clear that BT is only a ‘front’ for ‘be professional‘ which is a venture between a large firm of accountants and a city (London) law firm.

It has to be said the list of features of this product are very good, there are four three versions FREE Trial, Blue, Silver and Gold.

So what do you get, here is the list of feature, which are different depending on the version you pay for:

• Business planner – helps you develop a business plan
• Bookkeeping – manage you accounts
• Sales & Marketing
• Legal e-alerts
• Payroll
• Employing staff
• Health & Safety
• HR & records

Initially when looking at the BT website I was excited, but then I looked at the ‘be professional’ website and it became clear that the BT site is out of date, only referring to two versions Lite FREE and Premium, and with it the pricing structure is also out of date, very out of date.

Another thing that struck me, here they are offering all these facilities to the small business, and an impressive list it is, but surely we shouldn’t be expecting the small business to become a bookkeeper, accountant, sales and marketing expert, HR and Health and Safety officer, yet this is what you would end up being with this list of service offerings.

So it really comes as no surprise that a firm of accountants and a law firm thought this up, their idea I think is great, their execution is not. I would have been very impressed if they, as winweb do, offered the bookkeeping for free and then provided a service/help line to deal with the other areas, unfortunately this costs money, not something I guess they want to spend on small business.

So near, yet so far!

Remember, there are a lot of different ways for small business to maintain their records, but most important in my opinion, find the right advisers to support you, it really will make your life easier and free you from having to be the accountant, bookkeeper, marketing and HR person, and thereby allow you to actually run the business you set up!